How is Mass Spectrometry Analysis performed?
Mass Spectrometry Analysis: Hyphenated Techniques and Other Practices
Mass spectrometry analysis is a powerful tool for determining the molecular weight, sequence, composition, and modifications of various analytes, such as small molecules, proteins, peptides, and oligonucleotides. It can also be combined with other front-end technologies, such as liquid chromatography (LC), gas chromatography (GC), supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), capillary electrophoresis (CE), and inductively coupled plasma (ICP), to enhance its sensitivity and selectivity.
Electrospray is one of the most common and versatile methods for ionizing analytes, which generates multiple charged ions from a liquid solution. Electrospray can be used for analyzing a wide range of analytes, from small molecules to large biomolecules, and can be coupled with various mass analyzers.
One of the most widely used mass analyzers is the triple quadrupole, which consists of two mass-selective quadrupoles (Q1 and Q3) and a collision cell (Q2) in between. The triple quadrupole can perform multiple reaction monitoring (MRM), a highly selective and sensitive technique for detecting specific analytes. By selecting a parent ion in Q1 and a unique fragment ion in Q3, MRM eliminates the interference from other ions and provides accurate quantification.
Other mass analyzers, such as time-of-flight (TOF), ion trap, or orbitrap, can provide high-resolution and accurate mass measurements. Still, they are less selective and sensitive than the triple quadrupole. They can also be used for analyzing intact proteins or peptides using different fragmentation methods, such as collision-induced dissociation (CID), electron transfer dissociation (ETD), or higher-energy collisional dissociation (HCD), to generate sequence-specificions. Another ionization method, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), can also be used for protein or peptide analysis. Unfortunately, it is less compatible with liquid chromatography and produces fewer charge states than electrospray.
Mass spectrometry analysis is a revolutionary tool for research in diverse fields, such as pharmacokinetics, proteomics, metabolomics, and genomics. Generally, electrospray and triple quadrupole mass spectrometry can achieve the best method development, validation, and sample analysis results for the Mass Spectrometry testing services requested by biotech.